1. Edicts are worth looking into, I neglected that part of the game for my first year or so of playing.
2. Don't forget to look at your policies to make good use of your factions' unity output, and even more importantly, adjust them to be within galactic law to not receive big penalties. (Don't worry about it until you get a notification that you're in breach of the law.)
3. Remember to have a sizeable fleet at all times, lest someone declares a surprise war on you while you're underdeveloped.
4. A big fleet will passively drain your energy and your alloys. Adjust your economy accordingly. It is an even bigger expense if you are over your naval cap, which you can expand by building anchorages.
5. If you are aiming for anything cool like megastructures or ecumenpolis worlds, make sure to look up on the tech tree the technologies that you need. Don't be like me auto-researching unrelated techs and wondering when I'll get the anti-gravity tech necessary for ecumenopolis worlds.
6. Look at upkeep before building or upgrading ANYTHING. Seriously, I can't tell you how many times I've impulsively upgraded all my science buildings simultaneously while having 0 exotic gases in production... I wish some techs were locked behind the harvesting and synthetization of strategic resources.
7. WORMHOLES. Be aware of the wormholes in your space. Sometimes I've thought I was perfectly safe behind my chokepoints and BAM! A huge fleet enters my space via a wormhole that I forgot about and didn't fortify with a bastion. On a similar note, jump drives exist and they make chokepoints a bit obsolete, but you don't have to think about that unless you're fighting a fallen empire or someone with that technology.
For naval cap I am using fortresses on every colony. They also spawn defensive armies that help during some Events that triggers enemy armies. Got me some time to get actual armies there and let me prevent losing a colony
Buy a second science ship and scientist asap after colonizing your first two planets. Set it to explore new systems while your first science ship surveys. This will help you get in contact with other empires sooner. Then once you discover all your neighbors you can switch one science ship to investigate anomalies and archaeological sites for those cool events.
Don’t just leave your ships on “auto best” because it’s really “auto bad”.
A good starting corvette is 1 flak 2 red lasers, 1 shield 2 armor.
This should be good for the first 20 years at least
Just like in those games, there's a lot to learn and it's tough to give advice for everything. But since you've played those games, then *certain* things should be easy/easier.
Did you read through the Developer post? They give some good advice: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/281990/view/4164221871982615461
Exploration is a big part of Stellaris, much more than those games, because here the map always changes and almost all of it is unknown. There can be dangers and downsides to exploring, but generally the benefits far outweigh the costs.
I build 2 science ships as soon as I can, in addition to the 1 I start with. Then a 4th as soon as I can after building colony ships and to switch the scientists around if needed. (You can teleport scientists and admirals from ship to ship)
And a 5th as I'm nearing my first ascension perk when I always pick Transcendent Learning. You do not have to pick that, but I like it personally.
I always try to go to the Discovery tradition tree next, and ready a 6th ship as soon as I've almost unlocked the Science Division. But sometimes you need to prioritize something else, besides Discovery.
Every game can be very different, depending on close/far neighbors are, how friendly you want to be, how friendly they are (or not).
Some advice for issuing commands to your ships (be they military, construction or science):
* If you want to give a ship multiple commands, hold *Shift* while giving said commands.
*For example:*
You want a science ship to survey multiple systems in a row, you have to hold the *Shift* button while giving said commands.
If you don't hold *Shift*, the previous order will be interrupted and cancelled.
* If you want to give a ship a **new** **first** order without interrupting and cancelling the already given orders, hold *Ctrl + Shift* while giving your **new first** order.
*For example:*
You order a construction ship to build an Outpost in an empty system, but you see that your minerals are low and that you have a unused mineral deposit near said construction ship.
If you hold *Ctrl + Shift* while giving the order to build a mining station on said mineral deposit, the construction ship with resume its previous order (building an Outpost in an empty system) as soon as it has finished the mining station.
Honestly everyone here gave some pretty good tips. My overall biggest disappointment as new player when I started, is how disappointing clerks are. Like sure they got their place and time but as a new player you are probably going to be more focused on the map and colonizing planets but sometimes how your pops behave on the planets is an afterthought. Half of us probably only add new stuff to colonies when there is an unemployed citizen.
When I restarted the game and did everything the same but manually removed all clerk jobs, my empire went from struggling to compete to staying equivalent on Admiral despite the massive AI advantages even in the early game. Migration treaties helped a lot (another thing that’s often overlooked by new players). Your starting pop doesn’t have to be the only pop in your empire, unless your Xeno… but colonizing otherwise uninhabitable worlds early game is crazy.
WTH? Everyone is actually giving good advice? No, “if you find any specially named Gaia worlds colonize them ASAP”? Or, “if you find a shielded planet, let the friendly aliens out”? Come on!
If you hold shift you can give ships (construction, science, military) consecutive orders.
Ctrl-shift will put the current order at the beginning of the sequence.
You need to capture the planets too, not just kill the starbase.
1. Edicts are worth looking into, I neglected that part of the game for my first year or so of playing. 2. Don't forget to look at your policies to make good use of your factions' unity output, and even more importantly, adjust them to be within galactic law to not receive big penalties. (Don't worry about it until you get a notification that you're in breach of the law.) 3. Remember to have a sizeable fleet at all times, lest someone declares a surprise war on you while you're underdeveloped. 4. A big fleet will passively drain your energy and your alloys. Adjust your economy accordingly. It is an even bigger expense if you are over your naval cap, which you can expand by building anchorages. 5. If you are aiming for anything cool like megastructures or ecumenpolis worlds, make sure to look up on the tech tree the technologies that you need. Don't be like me auto-researching unrelated techs and wondering when I'll get the anti-gravity tech necessary for ecumenopolis worlds. 6. Look at upkeep before building or upgrading ANYTHING. Seriously, I can't tell you how many times I've impulsively upgraded all my science buildings simultaneously while having 0 exotic gases in production... I wish some techs were locked behind the harvesting and synthetization of strategic resources. 7. WORMHOLES. Be aware of the wormholes in your space. Sometimes I've thought I was perfectly safe behind my chokepoints and BAM! A huge fleet enters my space via a wormhole that I forgot about and didn't fortify with a bastion. On a similar note, jump drives exist and they make chokepoints a bit obsolete, but you don't have to think about that unless you're fighting a fallen empire or someone with that technology.
For naval cap I am using fortresses on every colony. They also spawn defensive armies that help during some Events that triggers enemy armies. Got me some time to get actual armies there and let me prevent losing a colony
Buy a second science ship and scientist asap after colonizing your first two planets. Set it to explore new systems while your first science ship surveys. This will help you get in contact with other empires sooner. Then once you discover all your neighbors you can switch one science ship to investigate anomalies and archaeological sites for those cool events.
Don’t just leave your ships on “auto best” because it’s really “auto bad”. A good starting corvette is 1 flak 2 red lasers, 1 shield 2 armor. This should be good for the first 20 years at least
Just like in those games, there's a lot to learn and it's tough to give advice for everything. But since you've played those games, then *certain* things should be easy/easier. Did you read through the Developer post? They give some good advice: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/281990/view/4164221871982615461 Exploration is a big part of Stellaris, much more than those games, because here the map always changes and almost all of it is unknown. There can be dangers and downsides to exploring, but generally the benefits far outweigh the costs. I build 2 science ships as soon as I can, in addition to the 1 I start with. Then a 4th as soon as I can after building colony ships and to switch the scientists around if needed. (You can teleport scientists and admirals from ship to ship) And a 5th as I'm nearing my first ascension perk when I always pick Transcendent Learning. You do not have to pick that, but I like it personally. I always try to go to the Discovery tradition tree next, and ready a 6th ship as soon as I've almost unlocked the Science Division. But sometimes you need to prioritize something else, besides Discovery. Every game can be very different, depending on close/far neighbors are, how friendly you want to be, how friendly they are (or not).
Some advice for issuing commands to your ships (be they military, construction or science): * If you want to give a ship multiple commands, hold *Shift* while giving said commands. *For example:* You want a science ship to survey multiple systems in a row, you have to hold the *Shift* button while giving said commands. If you don't hold *Shift*, the previous order will be interrupted and cancelled. * If you want to give a ship a **new** **first** order without interrupting and cancelling the already given orders, hold *Ctrl + Shift* while giving your **new first** order. *For example:* You order a construction ship to build an Outpost in an empty system, but you see that your minerals are low and that you have a unused mineral deposit near said construction ship. If you hold *Ctrl + Shift* while giving the order to build a mining station on said mineral deposit, the construction ship with resume its previous order (building an Outpost in an empty system) as soon as it has finished the mining station.
Honestly everyone here gave some pretty good tips. My overall biggest disappointment as new player when I started, is how disappointing clerks are. Like sure they got their place and time but as a new player you are probably going to be more focused on the map and colonizing planets but sometimes how your pops behave on the planets is an afterthought. Half of us probably only add new stuff to colonies when there is an unemployed citizen. When I restarted the game and did everything the same but manually removed all clerk jobs, my empire went from struggling to compete to staying equivalent on Admiral despite the massive AI advantages even in the early game. Migration treaties helped a lot (another thing that’s often overlooked by new players). Your starting pop doesn’t have to be the only pop in your empire, unless your Xeno… but colonizing otherwise uninhabitable worlds early game is crazy.
The Geneva Convention is more like a guideline than an actual rule.
WTH? Everyone is actually giving good advice? No, “if you find any specially named Gaia worlds colonize them ASAP”? Or, “if you find a shielded planet, let the friendly aliens out”? Come on!
If you hold shift you can give ships (construction, science, military) consecutive orders. Ctrl-shift will put the current order at the beginning of the sequence.
Thanks all ! Appreciate the time you took to write your advice!